God Spoke To Me

Introduction

It is good to be home. And I’m so thankful for the prayers and the expressions of concern and interest in my recent trip. For those of you who are visiting for the last two weeks, I’ve been in Sri Lanka preaching the gospel. We were in six different locations on that island, working sometimes with brethren there, sometimes trying to teach the gospel to the lost. And it was a very uh, I think beneficial trip, very fruitful trip. And in the near future, I’m going to share with you a report about that work. Um I’ve I’ve I’ve made an executive decision. I I don’t think I’ll share that report from this pulpit. Uh what I think I will do is to, you remember the COVID days of our Zoom meetings together.

I think that’s probably the way I’ll do the report, it’s just from my desk, and I’ll record it and post it to our website, and so that it’ll be easier, maybe more conversational that way to be able to do the report and share a lot of photos and videos that I have with you, and it’ll be much easier to share those photos and videos, I think, in that format. And so I look forward to sharing with you the time uh that we spent there on that island uh with the good brethren there and the good people that that I was able to meet. Uh but as always, it’s good to be back home, and it’s good to be here uh with you this morning. Now, you know that we have been speaking throughout this year on this theme that we are family.

And we’ve been talking about not just that good news that we are a family and we share that spiritual relationship, but we’ve been talking about the duties and the obligations, what that means to be a part of a family. And lately, this quarter, we’ve been talking about how we help our family grow. And most of that focus has to do with evangelism, with teaching the laws, to literally growing this family in that sense, but it also must include other types of growth, just as beneficial and just as important to us spiritually. And part of that individual growth has to do with us understanding the Word of God. And so this morning I’d like to talk to you on the subject of God spoke to me. But before I do that, I want to tell you about a conversation I had on this trip.

We were in six different places on the island, and I was through five different airports on this trip. And I want to tell you about a conversation I had in the airport with a gentleman. Was actually in the restroom of the airport.

And he asked where I was going.

And I thought, you can’t see me. I’m right here in front of the mirror with you in the airport restroom. And you may be ahead of me here. It was then that I realized that he had a Bluetooth speaker in his ear, and he was not talking to me at all. But I was talking to him. You know, communication sometimes is hard. And sometimes we have a conversation with people who aren’t even there. And we may feel like someone is speaking to us when they’re not speaking to us at all. And so this expression, God spoke to me. When you hear that expression, what’s your first thought? You may think in the in the modern terms of someone saying, and we often hear people say this, that they literally heard the voice of God.

God spoke to me. It’s usually through some difficult or strained experience that they’re having in their life that they feel and actually maybe hear what they think to be the voice of God. And I want us to talk about that expression a little bit this morning, that experience a little bit this morning, but then spend most of our time talking about God really speaking to us. And so the common meaning of that expression would be someone saying that I literally heard the voice of God.

1. How Do You Know It Was God?

As with this topic, with every topic, we should approach it biblically, scripturally. And when we have, think about that, that someone says or believes that they literally heard the voice of God speak to them. I have a couple concerns about that. First of all, the first problem I would have that with that approach is, how do you know it was God? I thought that man in the airport restroom was talking to me. But he wasn’t.

Although I was talking back to him. And so, how do you know that it was the voice of God? There’s a couple other options that are very disturbing of that voice that you heard. It might be your own voice that you heard. Rufus talked about that inner voice that we have, and it has some value to it. And so maybe in some troubling, difficult time, that voice speaking to you might be your own voice. And what your own voice tells you might be something you need to listen to, and it might be something you need to run away from. But if we are to assume that supernatural beings can communicate with us here and now in that very vocal verbal way, then how do I know that that wasn’t the voice of Satan speaking to me rather than the voice of God?

2. God Used an Earthly Messenger

And so while I don’t discount the idea that God could, if he saw fit, speak to us as he spoke to people in times past. Maybe I need to seek a more reliable, dependable source of communication. And then when I recognize that scripture tells me that that’s not how God said he would communicate to man. When God wanted to impart, and we’re going to talk about that means of communication today. I want you to think, you can turn over there if you want to. We won’t be reading from Acts chapters eight, nine, and ten. Those three successive chapters have a lot to say about God’s communication with men. We have some stories, at least three stories of conversion in Acts chapters eight, nine, and ten. And in each account of conversion, God is going to communicate his will to man.

In Acts chapter 8, we have one of the most famous conversions in the book of Acts. That’s a Saul of Tarsus. And guess what? God spoke to Saul. Jesus spoke to him, that voice from heaven. But it’s interesting to me what Jesus says to Saul, among other things, he tells Saul to go into the city, and there a human being, a man by the name of Ananias, would tell him what he needed to do in order to be saved. That’s in Acts chapter 9. In Acts chapter 10, we have the story of Cornelius, the first Gentile convert. And an angel of God speaks to Cornelius. But he tells Cornelius not what he needs to do in order to be saved. He tells Cornelius to send for a man named Simon Peter.

And that man would communicate to him what he needed to do in order to be saved. That’s in Acts chapter 10. If we back up before those stories in Acts chapter 8, we have the story of the Ethiopian who’s riding home from Jerusalem, reading Scripture, and an angel of the Lord speaks to a man named Philip and tells that man, Philip, to go and to tell the Ethiopian the story of Jesus Christ. And baptizes him right there on the side of the road. It seems to me that a precedent is set in those three chapters, chapters eight, nine, and ten of the book of Acts, and that is, although God had the capacity and even used the capacity to speak to man in the most literal sense, that when God wanted to communicate his will for man, he used an earthly messenger to convey that divine message.

3. God Spoke Through Designated Messengers

And he has done that in other ways. Look with me in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 2. God spoke through these designated messengers. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the apostle Paul, one of those designated messengers, says this.

Let’s pause there just a little bit. Some have misunderstood, I believe, misunderstood Paul’s point here when he says, I didn’t come to you with excellence of speech or wisdom, that they say apologetically, well, poor Paul, he just wasn’t that good of a public speaker. And so Paul is saying, I, you know, when I came to you, it wasn’t that great. That’s not what Paul is saying. We remember in the book of Acts that the Gentiles in one location wanted to worship Paul as the messenger God, Mercury. You don’t get worshiped as a messenger God if you’re a poor speaker. So Paul is not apologizing for his lack of public speaking skills, because he goes on in verse 2 to say this, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Paul says, when I did not come to you in excellence of speech, Paul says that was intentional on my part. Because I didn’t want you to look at Paul and say, Isn’t Paul a great communicator? Isn’t Paul so good? He said, I wanted you to see the gospel. I wanted you to focus on the message, not the messenger. I was with you, verse 3, in weakness and fear and in trembling, and my speech and my preaching were not persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Not the wisdom of this age, and the rulers of this age are coming to nothing, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory. So I did come to you in wisdom. But it wasn’t human wisdom that would draw you to me. It was divine wisdom that would do two things. It would separate those ears who really wanted to hear the divine wisdom, and it would direct them to the cross. He goes on to say, verse 9, for it is written, quoting the book of Isaiah, I has not seen, ear has not heard, heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

If we read that verse out of its context, our mind immediately might go to heaven. The things which God has prepared for those who love him. Won’t heaven be great? God has prepared that for us. Well, that’s true, but that’s not what he’s saying. The things which God has prepared for us in this context is not heaven, but it’s the words by which we will be saved that will lead us to heaven. Because he goes on to say in verse 10, but God has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things which have been freely given to us by God. Paul says, yes, God has communicated those things which he has prepared for us. He’s communicated to me, an apostle, an ambassador of Jesus Christ, the word of God. And notice now what he says. Verse 13, these things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Paul says, God communicated this to me, and I’m sharing it with you, as he would tell the Ephesian brethren, so that when you read, you might have my understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So God has said he would communicate to us through a human messenger.

Now, today, that human messenger might be the apostles.

4. Scripture Is Sufficient

And then lastly, we need to understand that the Bible teaches that Scripture is sufficient. God has spoken to me.

Look with me at some familiar passages in 2 Timothy chapter 3. You could probably quote this verse with us in 2 Timothy chapter 3. Notice the point that he’s making here to his young apprentice Timothy. When he says, 2 Timothy 3, look at verse 14. But you, Timothy, must continue in the things which you’ve learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from childhood you’ve known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good word. Paul says, Timothy, as a preacher and a teacher of the gospel, you live in Scripture.

Because Scripture is sufficient that you may be perfect, thoroughly equipped. We need to understand that what God has communicated to us is sufficient. And that tells me at least two things. Number one is everything I need to know about God is contained in Scripture. Everything I need to know about how to restore or have my relationship restored to God that was violated by sin is contained in Scripture. And therefore, the second point, which maybe is just as important as the first point, is that I should value that scripture as being what it is. As Paul would literally say here to Timothy, all scripture is God breathed. And so did God speak to me? Yes, he did. And I need to value it. My parents believed strongly, believed in physical punishment.

5. Value the Scripture God Has Spoken

And I can remember some of the physical punishment that I received. And I can remember one of the worst that I got, it seems like, was one time when I mistreated my Bible. I left it outside. And it rained. And as you might imagine, it just ruined that brown leather old King James Bible. And you would think I broke the Ten Commandments tablets myself. And looking back upon the punishment that I received, I think it was twofold. Number one is there was a financial component to it. That Bible cost my dad money. And the replacement that they were surely going to give for that Bible was going to cost my dad good, hard-earned money. And dad didn’t like parting with money. And so there was a financial component to that.

There was also just the fact that I was just being neglectful of possessions. But I firmly believe in my heart of hearts that part of the punishment that I receive is because my parents felt like that I was disrespecting the book. That I hadn’t just left a science book or a library book outside in the rain, but that this book was special. And it needed to be treated with that reverence.

And while that’s true of the physically bound volumes that we hold, I hope it’s even more true to the words that are contained in those volumes. That we need to value this. Look with me in the book of Hebrews, chapter one. And I want you to think about what these passages are saying to us. The book of Hebrews, as you know, is a book of contrast, comparisons and contrasts between the old covenant and the new covenant. And the word, the operative word of Hebrews, is better or greater. The new covenant is greater or better than the old covenant. But notice how he begins this treatise when he says in chapter 1, verse 1, God, who at various times and various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us, spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom all he has made the worlds.

6. We Grow in This Word by Understanding

God has spoken to us. Now that means a lot, but one thing that it means is that that is valuable communication. Don’t take for granted the fact that this is the word of God. Don’t take for granted in something flippant or trivial that God has spoken to us. And it should be valued. And it should be treated with that respect and that value. And again, by that I don’t simply mean the way you treat the book itself, but more importantly, the way you treat the words that God has chosen to speak to you. And so let’s talk just a little bit about how we can grow in this word. And we grow in this word by understanding. Communication is meaningless unless it’s understood. I spent two weeks in a country that speaks two languages, neither of which I understand.

And so I was largely lost unless my good friend Joe would translate. What did he say? Because communication is meaningless unless it’s understood and properly understood. God has communicated to us, and now it is our responsibility, if we truly value this communication, is to seek to understand it. What are you saying to me, God? And so let’s talk about understanding the language and some tips or helps that will help us to understand this valuable communication. First of all, to understand the language that is used, we must understand the meaning of the word itself in both the language, the region, and the time in which it was spoken. Now that sounds like a lot, and it is. But if I’m to understand the words of Scripture, I need to understand it in its original language and in the time and the manner and the even the area in which it is spoken.

Let’s think about some examples of that. A frequent word that we read in the New Testament is the word baptism. Just this week I looked up on dictionary.com, and here’s the definition that you’ll read today in America in the English language about baptism. The definition given was it’s a Christian religious rite consisting of immersion in our sprinkling with water as a sign that the subject is cleansed from sin and constituted as a member of the church. Now, is that an accurate definition of the word baptism as it is used in 21st century America? Yeah, it is.

Words can change meaning. And they often do. Here’s a couple examples that I thought of. Do you recognize when I say something’s awful? If you invited me over to your house and fixed a dish for me, and I just said, Well, that was awful. Would you see that as a compliment or an insult? You probably throw me out of your house and not welcome me back. That to your face I said your food was awful. Do you recognize that the word awful used to mean what it literally says that it was full of awe? It was a good word. It was full of all. That food was all full. But that word has changed its meaning, hasn’t it? And if so, if you read that word, maybe like in Shakespeare, you might want to say, well, it meant something different then.

And so I need to understand that to be able to understand it. Here’s another word that you can maybe relate to a little bit better. The word server. What do you think of when you think of the word server? If you’re computer-minded, you might think of a computer that stores some information in there. But if you’re reading a piece of literature from the 1800s, and you see the word server, is that the thought that ought to come to mind that here’s a computer that’s storing some information in a remote site? No, they probably meant something different by that, right? And so you see the importance of understanding scriptures. We need to understand the meaning of those words in the time and the language in which they’re originally spoken.

But it’s also important to understand them in the region. Now, what do you see on the screen in front of you? Dragonfly, I heard that. Do you know growing up, I didn’t know what a dragonfly was? We didn’t call them dragonflies. In fact, today we have a lot of them in our backyard. When I see one, I have to think for a minute. To what do they call that? Oh, here they call that a dragonfly. In North Alabama, where I grew up, we called that a snake doctor. A snake doctor. Now, the legend was, and I’m not saying I believe the legend, the legend was that these snake doctors would fly around following snakes. And they would sew up the wounds if the snake got hurt.

Now, I don’t buy that at all, but that’s what we called them. That’s all I knew them by was snake doctors. And so you see the importance of regional language. Sometimes you might call something that I don’t know. But if I’m if you’re to understand what I mean when I say the word snake doctor, that you’re not thinking about a very specialized veterinarian, then I’m talking about an insect that flies around. And so it is with Scripture that to understand it, we have to understand how did they use that language? And that takes a little bit of work on our part. The meaning of the word itself in the language, region, and time in which it was spoken, as further defined and explained, are limited by the context in which it is used.

And so it’s not just enough to look up the dictionary definition of the word. We have to say, how was it used in that context? Look in the book of Philippians, chapter 4. Here’s a very simple example of that. How do we understand the language that God is using when he’s spoken to us? Philippians 4 and in verse 15. The Apostle Paul says, Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only. You Philippians. Was he talking about residence, the city of Philippi in general? No. He goes on to say, the church. So when he uses the term Philippians, he wasn’t talking about the way we might define that word.

What is a Philippians? Somebody who lives in Philippi. Not in Philippians 4, verse 15. It doesn’t mean that. It means somebody who lives in Philippi who’s a part of that local church. Paul to Timothy would talk about widows. Remember that text? And he would further, what’s a widow? It’s a widow, someone who’s lost their husband. Not in that context, it isn’t. It means more than that. He limited that definition. And so we use the terms as they’re used in Scripture, as they are further defined in Scripture, and as they’re even further defined, expanded, are limited by what the entirety of Scripture teaches. So many supposed Bible contradictions are cleared up when we apply these principles. What does that text mean? I need to see how did they use those words then and there?

What does the context tell me about that? And what does the entirety of Scripture shed light on that? We know that 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15 uses very strong language when it says, do not love the world or the things that are in the world. Don’t love the world, God says.

But wait a minute. Do not love the world. Doesn’t John 3.16 says God so loved the world. We don’t see that as a contradiction. Because we understand the context surrounded by the greater context of Scripture, that when it says God so loved the world, that there it’s talking about the inhabitants of the world. God loved the souls that existed in this world. But when God tells us to not love the world, he’s not saying don’t love the people of the world. World’s used in a different way, isn’t it? He’s saying not to love the worldly, carnal, sinful things that would draw you away from the Father. So God has spoken to me through his holy apostles and prophets, and he is now expecting me to understand what he has said to me.

Conclusion

And that’s going to take some work. It’s going to take some common sense. And it’s going to take some understanding. And so God has communicated to us what we need to do in order to be saved. He’s told us that we must hear him and believe in him. Now, what does believe mean? Repent. What does repent mean? Confess. What is that? Baptism. Is that today’s baptism as defined by the dictionary? Or is that the baptism that I read about in Scripture? God has spoken to us, words by which we might be saved. If we’ll hear, seek to understand, and obey those words. Would you do that this morning? Can we encourage you to grow in this family? To grow in your understanding and your practice and your obedience of the word of God.

If we can help you in any way, would you let that be known right now as together we stand and as we sing?